The Mini Tea Cosy

So my previous cable tea cozy went down pretty well. So well in fact another was requested from me, however this time it wasn’t for an average four cup teapot, but a teapot with a width of 17cm  and a height of 9cm. This therefore being my first attempt at adapting a pattern, I actually went and bought a very cheap teapot of these measurements to help the process.

So this is what I bought…£5.00 from Tescos… Bargain 🙂 !

 

 

The adaptations I made was to shorten the initial chain to 56, meaning each panel includes 28 stitches, broken down into six for the cable and eleven for each side of the cable ( for the stitches that rotate between SC and DC).

A second change was the elastic band at the bottom of the cozy was shortened to a width of five stitches instead of ten.

But lastly an extra weave sequence of the cable was added. This was based only on a personal preference, as with such a small pot I loved the slightly over sized jumper look quality it provided.

Finished off with some lacy ribbon….And wollah!

If you want further information on the cable tea cozy check out my previous post. Otherwise, the pattern is sold very reasonably on Etsy by Knotsewcute.

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Tea Cosy no. 2

Hey, sorry for the late blog! I do try and blog weekly however my partner decided to change our broadband provider …..what a polava! So… with the success of my previous tea cosy, I’ve had another family request! This time  searching for something a little less girly, I stumbled across this beautiful cable crochet pattern on etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/156411033/tea-time-cozy-crochet-pattern-pdf?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=crochet+tea+cosy+patterns&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

It includes stitches such as SC, Reverse SC, DC, HDC and cable (refer to cable mittens), it advertises itself as an intermediate pattern, however once you understand the cable technique and as long as you keep the right number of stitches at the time, the pattern became very easy to do. One thing I do have to praise is the PDF pattern itself, it was so descriptive and had each stitch and section described beautifully and annotated with pictures, I will definitely be purchasing patterns  from Knotsewcute again.

So this was what I was able to produce…

 

Effectively, without giving too much away you work in rounds to produce the elastic like ribbing , divide off to create two cable panels and then join everything off with a few rounds of half double crochet. One technique I was really quite happy about, was producing rows of alternating single crochets and double crochets, which can be seen on either side of the cable pattern. It produced such a rustic chunky stitch and a pattern of its own, itself crocheted with a bulkier yarn and some chunky buttons would look lovely as a tea cosy even by itself. So watch this space… I might attempt that sometime soon and show you what I mean! I equally loved the ribbing and found it so quick and easy to produce, I would definitely be using this in future projects…

One minor thing I wished the pattern did include was details on how to efficiently stitch the pon pons on! My stitching is pretty horrendous and these might need restitching when used on a day to day basis.

Otherwise , I would give the pattern a five stars and recommend that you check it out!

Anyone fancy purchasing a finished product, message me!

Tea Cosy

So with Mothering Sunday just passing. The theme is Mums! Mine personally requested a tea cosy, so this is what she got!

The gorgeous pattern I found, was chosen for its cath kidston, retro, feminine look. The actual design is very simplistic, it is in fact just two squares, attached together with only an inch worth of stitches at the bottom right and left corners. The easiness of the design means it could fit a variety of teapots of different sizes and shapes and therefore makes an ideal gift for someone special.

 

(My blog translates the British terms used in the clip to American…. just the way I self taught myself sorry!)

The pattern includes:

*4mm crochet hook and aran wool.

• Chain 40 (the width of your teapot, handle and spout not included, to the nearest number that is divisional by three plus four)
• Round one: Two dc in the fourth stitch from the hook. (3 chain stitches act as a third dc). Now skip two chain stitches and do three dc into the next stitch, repeat this all the way along. Chain three and turn your work around.
• Round two: Repeat round one, but place the three dc into the gaps created by round one. When coming to the last stitch there will be no available gap to place three dcs so what you do instead is dc into the very last stitch. Chain three and turn your work.
• Round three: Your last dc created a gap so place 2 dcs into this space. Now repeat the previous pattern, three dc into the spaces.
• Repeat this until desired tea cozy height is achieved. Two of these need to be made, front and back.

Edging:

• Once finished, single crochet around three sides of the squares panels produced. This is so you can add the frill edging with ease. Slip knot yarn on hook, slip stitch into the first stitch on the right hand corner, chain two and single crochet into the top side of the first dc. Now For the height of each dc and each gap you want to place two single crochets. Repeat this all the way along.
• For the corners the pattern is three sc into the edge of your dc, chain one turn the corner and three sc.
• Repeat previous pattern until another corner is met.

Frill edging:

• Slip knot onto the hook and slip stitch into the very first stitch on the bottom right hand. Chain three and in that same space do two dc.
• Skip a stitch and slip stitch into the following stitch. Skip a further stitch and place five dc into the next stitch. Repeat this until a corner is met.
• When you reach a corner play it by eye, either leave a greater or smaller gap between the slip stitches. However, you basically want a frill to go around the edge, so place seven dc into a stitch that will allow this comfortably. After this is achieved repeat the previous pattern. When coming to the end, place three dc instead of five to produce a flat end rather than a curve.

Rose:

• Slip knot producing a nice long tail as this will be used to hold the rose together.
• Chain a number that is divisible by three plus five, e.g. 35.
• Round one: Double crochet into the fifth stitch from the hook. Skip a stitch and double crochet into the next stitch. Chain one and double crochet into the same stitch. Repeat all the way along. Chain three and turn your work around.
• Round two: Your chain three acts as a dc, so in this first instance just do five dc into the v shape produced by round one. Slip stitch into the gap between the next v shape. From now on place six dc into each v and slip stitch in the gap between the vs. Repeat until the end.
• To finish off slip stitch into the last v.
• Roll the rose up and using the long yarn from the initial slip knot, stitch the rose base together, so the shape is held in place.

Leaf:

• Chain thirteen, sc in the second and third chain from the hook. Now crochet two half dc, one dc and four triple crochets in each stitch along. This creates height and therefore the width of the leaf.
• To come back down crochet a dc, a half dc and then in the last stitch crochet three sc. This brings us back around to the other side of the leaf.
• To complete the other side mimic the previous, 1 hdc, 1 dc, 4tcr, 1dc, 2hdc, 2sc and slip stitch into the tip of the leaf.

Tea cosy tie- Chain to a desired length and single crochet into every stitch.

 

This was an extremely enjoyable pattern and I love the results that I was able to achieve! It overall could be completed within an evening, so you must find the time to check it out and have a go!